Mookse discussion on Zoom?

[Emmeline]

Thanks everyone! Enjoy, didn't mean to derail the thread. Yes I'm sure he'll make a cameo at a future Zoom Wendy. :-)

[Stephen]

Congratulations Emily

[Irene]

Sorry I missed the Zoom. Congrats Emily!

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Thanks to all of you for another interesting and entertaining discussion. Consensus was that the next one should be in early October.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Lovely to sees people.

[Neil]

Thanks to everyone for the comments on books I haven’t read yet - I feel more enthused about reading them than I did before the call.

[Stephen]

Glad to hear the meeting went well. Hope there was a good number managed to make it. Is it possible to share a list of some of the books that folks were enthusiastic about. Of course recognising that will be fairly subjective.

[Debra]

Stephen wrote: "Glad to hear the meeting went well. Hope there was a good number managed to make it. Is it possible to share a list of some of the books that folks were enthusiastic about. Of course recognising th..."

We spent most of the time discussing the Booker longlist and the Women's Prize shortlist, along with some of the books that did not make the list. It was a good discussion.

[Cindy]

I enjoyed the discussion very much. We're all over the place on the Booker at the moment, but hopefully by the time the shortlist comes out, many of us will have read much more.

[WndyJW]

I’m sorry I missed out. My 83 yr old mother popped over and one does not dismiss an 83 yr old mum!

Emily, you didn’t derail the thread, I was the one who enthused over your baby and I make no apologies for that! Babies are a big deal!

[Adina ( on a short Hiatus)]

Emily wrote: "Thanks everyone! Enjoy, didn't mean to derail the thread. Yes I'm sure he'll make a cameo at a future Zoom Wendy. :-)" Congratulations Emily! As you know, it will be better in a few months so hang in there. You will sleep again!

[Adina ( on a short Hiatus)]

It was great to see you again even though I did not talk much. Although I did not read any of the longlisted books, it was interesting and exciting to hear you talk about them. I was waiting for the shortlist like the general audience but you convinced me to try one or two before then.

[Henk]

Congratulations Emily!
And thanks for hosting Hugh; I am much more excited about quite a few of the titles because of the conversation and the thoughts you all had on the longlist :-)

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Thanks also to Debra for setting up and hosting the Zoom meeting

[LindaJ^]

I might manage to make it again when winter returns! Sunday is my weekly 40km bike ride, to mow the lawn, and to cook and I forgot to set a reminder for the call on my calendar. Sorry to miss the discussion, again.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Might have to find a better way of doing the Zoom invitations next time, as I am starting to get a lot more Captchas, not just when sending messages but also when posting and updating reviews, and it is driving me mad...

[WndyJW]

Would it help if you sent them to our emails instead of as PM on here? I don’t know if that’s a lot of extra work for you and/or Debra though.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Email would be a lot quicker because GR messages can't have multiple recipients (unless they go to all members of a group), so it would help, but I don't think I have everyone's email addresses. I am guessing that posting links either in messages or in reviews may be what triggers the captcha.

[Henk]

Maybe a google sheet where people can register and leave their mailadres would help circumventing the Goodreads maximum?

[Hugh, Active moderator]

We don't need to decide anything now, as there is plenty of time before October.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Just remembered we were going to organise another chat in early October. I can't do the weekend of 9th/10th so I would favour Sunday 3rd or 17th. What do we think?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Hugh - I think we had talked about possibly doing it after the Goldsmith was announced (which is I think 6 October). So that might imply the 17th was better.

[Robert]

17th is better for me

[Neil]

17th is my granddaughter’s (COVID-delayed) dedication at church and I have no idea what time I will get home from that. I will join if I can - I agree that looks the best day.

[Cindy]

17th is fine for me.

[Henk]

Nice, I'll join if it's not after midnight Central European Time

[Paul]

Looks like that won't work for me, but happy to go with it and will join if I can.

[Paul]

Hugh wrote: "Email would be a lot quicker because GR messages can't have multiple recipients (unless they go to all members of a group), so it would help, but I don't think I have everyone's email addresses. I am guessing that posting links either in messages or in reviews may be what triggers the captcha."

What did we decide around sending invites - Goodreads dislike of links has only got worse

[Debra]

The 17th works for me, too. (Actually, both days are good)

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Ok 17th it is then

[Hugh, Active moderator]

As for the invitations, I think email is the easiest option, but to make that work you'll have to send me your email address in a private message (I think I only have email addresses for a few of you).

[Debra]

Did we decide on a time?

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Are we happy to stick with 2015 BST?

[Henk]

Nice, the time is great 😊

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I don't have very many of your email addresses yet - I think we are allowed to send links by PM again, but that is a much slower process for me, as GR has no mechanism for sending to multiple recipients other than group moderator messages that go to all members, and sending too many messages triggers captchas, so I may be very tempted to trim the list this time....

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I will use bcc for the recipients of the email unless you ask me to do otherwise, so you are only sharing the address with me, not the whole group.

[WndyJW]

My friend is in from out of town so you don’t need to send me a link, Hugh. In the future I don’t mind being part of a group email.

[Irene]

i totally forgot it was tomorrow and made plans to watch a movie with friends, sorry to miss it!

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I have just sent the email with the Zoom details to those of you whose addresses I have, so it may be worth checking it hasn't been filed as spam. Will try to do a bit of gap-filling by private messages tomorrow morning but I would much prefer to use email in future.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

A few ideas for talking points:
Booker shortlist and who we expect to win
Goldsmiths Prize
National Book Awards shortlists
Nobel Prize and Abdulrazak Gurnah
Any other recent reading highlights or books you are looking forward to
Anything else we should be doing in this group

[Cindy]

Quite a list Hugh! We certainly won't lack for topics!!

[Neil]

I’ll do my apologies now. Much as I enjoy talking to you all, a day with my granddaughter pushes you into second place. But if you want to discuss questions I can ask Richard Powers in the BBC interview next week that’s fine by me. As long as you tell me about them!

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Thanks to everyone for another enjoyable and interesting discussion. We provisionally decided the next should be in early December, and one topic will be our favourite books of 2021, so get thinking about which books are in your top five and why.

[Paul]

Apologies. Away from home and wasn’t able to join.

[Paul]

Incidentally, looking back the forum’s winner on the Hugh method) for book of the year was When We Cease to Understand the World which at the time wasn’t that prominent in the press etc, but has since become the only book to be shortlisted for both the UK and the US main translation awards as well as an Obama summer pick.

[Cindy]

I am so so sorry to have missed this gathering. I was watching the son of a close friend at a rugby match and due to injuries it went quite late and then I had traffic driving home. I was thinking of you and wishing I could have been part of the conversation. Early December sounds great for the next one.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

It was a great conversation - thanks everyone.

[David]

It was a nice conversation. My first. Thanks to Hugh for organizing.

[Karen Michele]

I was sorry to miss as well. The day just got away from me and my husband and I were just starting lunch here in WA State when it was time to be there. I'm glad it was a good session!

[Debra]

Enjoyed the discussion and looking forward to the next one!